Thank you to our friends at Azmodee for this great Xmas gift of a classic game SPLENDOR but with a 2 player only twist! Did it live up to the hype or did it leave us all cold and empty like those gems!

SPLENDOR DUEL

AGES 10+ / Players 2 / Time 30 mins

The Game

So again you are the leader of a guild. A wise and wonderful guild that needs money and prestige. Like most of the SPLENDOR catalogue, you are competing for the favour of the rich and powerful. You need 20 prestige or 10 crowns to win. This well off types give these to you in abundance. You need to be clever how you deal with them mind. You are a wheeling and dealing type that uses minerals in a race for victory. Inside the box is a board to lay the 25 minerals coins on. Three sets of resources cards, each level offers more but equally costs to add to your hand. These give you new abilities, all instant. From the ability to take another turn instantly, take a matching colour, 1 prestige to an overlap card. All helpful! 3 privilege scrolls. When used, allow you to take a specific action. Taking a single gem or gold, replenishing the board of gems and of course, selecting specific colour tokens! 4 royal cards (remember those from SPLENDOR) and finally, a card with the win conditions on it!

REVIEW

I have forgone the set up as WATCH IT PLAYED https://boardgamegeek.com/video/407282/splendor-duel/splendor-duel-how-play cover this and perfectly for all and sundry to understand and enjoy. Instead, you like me want to know a few things. Is this as good as any of the previous incarnations? Does the game work for two players? and can I really fit it into the original box?

The answers are all Yes. Then no. Then finally. Maybe.

Let me explain. SPLENDOR was and is, legendary. It is held as a masterpiece of gaming, and rightly so. Mechanically simple. Refreshingly lite but complex and totally without fault. SPLENDOR DUEL  achieves a sense of the original game. A like to the 5 or 6 versions that are thematically the same but add or subtract or place the game in specificity. The best parts of the game is in its options. Adding and subtracting layers of complexity and playbility to win. Also to plan and plot. Though short, it is not swift in the right eyes or hands of a player with some experience. Thanks to the options also being robust. These are where they are well thought out. Driven by levels of cards that you collect and that you use to unlock ever more, standard SPLENDOR attribute. But then flexing the parts with abilities and privileges. However sometimes the game becomes heavy with the privelige concept. Its combinations of abilitys can make the game become draining. Now i saw that the game can accomadate two teams but plays well with two players. Two evenly rated players that is. They might find the playing board a bit fiddly. Which creates a burden to play against each other in an uber competetive frame, because the components are sometimes lacking in being user friendly. Where the unevenly match will find it a godsend to distract in my experience.